VAAS (visualization as a service)

The javascript SDK to create, publish and share flexible data visualization. You can use it in your browser or in node.js.

Landing page

Visit vaas landing page to get an overview of it.

Installation

npm install vaas

Usage

prequisites

create a Columns account at columns.ai
grab your API key from your profile page.

basic usage

import { Columns } from 'vaas';
import { ChartType } from 'vaas/types/common';
import { API_KEY } from './config';

// create a new client
const columns = new Columns(API_KEY);

// fill in your data, in below example, we will a sample data (~/test/data.json)
// build a basic graph object from the data
const data = columns.data(['state'], ['value'], rows);
const graph = columns.graph(data);

// now we can customize this graph object: layout, theme, settings, chart type, etc.
// as basic exmaple: simply display it as a map
graph.type = ChartType.MAP;

// publish the graph to Columns to get a live link
// the url can be headless by simply appending `?headless` to the url
columns.publish('test-api', graph)
.then((url) =>{
  console.log(url);
});

After executing a few lines of code as shown above, you will get a new link in the console, similar like

https://columns.ai/visual/view/g-v0dK1sZUMlMeG4

Use headless parameter to make it embeddable in your app.

Run example

How to run the example in test folder:

clone this repo: git clone https://github.com/varchar-io/vaas
go to test folder: cd vaas/test, replace the {YOUR_API_KEY} in index.ts with your own API key obtained from columns.ai
build and run: yarn && node dist/index.js

Open the URL in your browser returned from the test run. Customize the graph object and run it again see the changes.

API

vaas is the code name for Columns SDK. It is a javascript library that allows you to create, publish and share data visualization. The SDK includes all the core graphing object models and the API client to interact with the Columns API. The major interfaces of the SDK are:

data - the data model.
graph - the graph model.
publish - the API client to publish the graph to Columns.

Besides the core data and core graph, other models are also available to customize the graph:

theme - the theme model that allow us to apply pre-built theme to the current graph.
access - the access model that allow us to control the access to the graph: public or restricted to a list of people.
elements - the elements model that allow us to control the elements of the graph: title, subtitle, annotations, arrows, widgets, etc.
settings - the settings model that allow us to control the settings of the graph: layout, color, background, font, etc.

Future work

Current version of the SDK is the visualization part of Columns that allows you to create, publish and share data visualization. In the future, we will add the analytics part of Columns that allows you to connect any data and query to generate the "data model" on demand. Please share your feedback and let us know what you think.

Try now

You can try the SDK right now. If you have any questions, please create an issue or reach out using any of the channels below.

varchar-io / vaas